1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a stereophonic sound system, and more particularly, to the type of stereophonic sound system by which generation of a plurality of acoustical data is controlled by staggering moments at which the acoustical data is generated.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of electronic musical instruments, a panpot is known as an example of a conventional device for artificially producing a stereophonic sound from a monaural sound. The panpot is a device for moving a sound image by distributing monaural sound signals to left and right sounding systems and changing the gain thereof for each monaural sound signal (i.e., increasing the signal power of each monaural sound signal) by using attenuators.
The panpot causes a right loudspeaker to produce sounds from the monaural sound signal by using a right attenuator, and causes a left loudspeaker to produce sounds from the monaural sound signal by using a left attenuator. Further, the panpot performs a right localization-shift of a sound image by increasing the gain of the right attenuator or reducing the gain of the left attenuator. Conversely, the panpot effects a left localization-shift of a sound image by reducing the gain of the right attenuator or increasing the gain of the left attenuator.
Accordingly, a stereophonic sound can be artificially produced by a conventional stereophonic sound system employing such a panpot, by controlling the volumes of the right and left sound sources. The present invention, however, is directed to a new stereophonic sound system, entirely different from such a conventional stereophonic sound system. Namely, an object of the present invention is to provide a stereophonic sound system for producing a stereophonic sound by controlling a moment at which a sound is generated from a right sound source, and another moment at which a sound is generated from a left sound source.